The oeuvre of Marinus Dittlinger includes stylized, dreamy landscapes, still lifes and a single cityscape. The basis for his style was laid by drawing lessons from the Dordrecht draftsman and engraver Adrianus Jacobus Terwen. The artist then attended the academy in Amsterdam, where he became a friend and fellow student of Jan Veth. The work of Marinus Dittlinger has a character all of its own, with a refined rendering of his subjects that resembles that of Symbolism. The painter often applies his (oil) paint so thinly that it appears to be a watercolour.